#I think my character as a 10 year old could have actually challenged him to single hand to hand combat and had an easier fight

[artificial-ascension]

If Saturn Team Galactic killed himself right in front of me I wouldn't care (He's my little meow meow<3)

His great great great(?) grandma slays though.

[makerofmadness]

ok so what the hell is the legal drinking age in earthbread man like. So I was thinking I would finally have to take the L on the "how fudging old is Alchemist Cookie" thing because Witch's Castle has that side story where she botches an experiment and it basically causes her to act like her brother. Including the alcoholism. (Tbh it is like my favorite special story in the game like part of that is 'cus of favorite character bias but also it ends really sweetly like WC is just really good for grape siblings fans in general they get a lot of content-). So I was like "okay then she has to be at least 19 if we assume the drinking age would line up with the real world/country the game is from. I can take an L I thought she was younger than that but I was wrong" BUT THEN FOR GINGERBRAVE'S BIRTHDAY WE GET THIS:

WIZARD IS A CONFIRMED CHILD THO????

Basically this is like really ancient shxt but like there was something called I think the Junior Cookie Challenge once where basically 9 kid characters gave you missions and WIZARD WAS ONE OF THEM

This is the picture I could find but like. Yeah Wizard's definitely a kid then. (I think this event happened before certain characters were even a thing including Alchemist when I checked the dates so like I have no idea if the characters were like limited for a reason or if this was all the kid characters in the game at the time but regardless I'm. Fubkign. Top 10 questions science can't answer Number 1: how fubkign old is Alchemist Cookie- like I'm guessing she just wasn't designed with a particular age in mind let's be real here-)

but like.

If Wizard can drink then like what is the legal drinking age on Earthbread man like-??????????

EDIT: I looked at the dates wrong/was thinking of when Alchemist existed in Ovenbreak I think and not in LINE (Alchemist was released like years before this event I think)... but then I ran into SOMETHING ELSE that throws a wrench in the works and by that I mean:

so DEVIL COOKIE ALSO existed before this event and yet was excluded but they're like. Really obviously a kid ESPECIALLY as of Witch's Castle (fudging. Three words: Crayon Doodle Set [literally their room decor includes a set of fudging crayola or some shxt like. I think it's obvious what impression we're supposed to get of them like obviously I don't think crayons should be locked off to only kids but like traditionally they're kinda thought of like a kids thing and Devil isn't like. Artistic-themed so to inexplicably have them... you can tell what's being communicated y'know?-) (and like I think Devil being the same age as Angel kinda. Is obvious-).

So the Junior challenge thing pretty much confirms nothing as to which characters AREN'T kids. Just which characters ARE kids. Frickin' almost had it and then lost it again-

Edit again: I also discovered that. Cream Puff existed during the time the Junior Cookie Challenge ran. And yet she wasn't in that. But now they're running kinda a sequel to that in Kakao Cookie Run and she's in THAT. So basically yeah it was never exhaustive 100% frickin' I'm going insane I'm having like two people debating with me (peacefully thankfully) over if Wizard's not actually drinking something alcoholic but like what is he drinking we don't know it could be anything but like he has a wine glass they could've given him a normal glass but they gave the kid a wine glass and we all have to suffer the consequences they didn't even put like a bowl of fruit punch on the table or anything just to say "haha he's just drinking this don't worry he's just a silly little guy :3" no they left the door wide open for us to at least ASSUME if it's not CONFIRMED by this that he's fudging destroying his nonexistent liver at the ripe old age of Child idk it's 2:22am as of me writing this

Too many edits: I need like a dedicated guide on what juice is and isn't meant to be alcohol in this universe because apparently the wizard art is like a reused asset from something about Hollyberry so like. But I know at least half the juice there is treated like alcoholic shxt too looking at some of the dialogue or like I'm mainly thinking of like wildberry's dialogue I think so. frickin'

another thing I realize is that. Alchemist drinking was because her personality got altered she wasn't like In Public. And... look I love Vampire but he isn't like the most responsible guy let's be real and like. Frickin' even can I just get like whether or not she has a diploma or anything please just anything like... ok I know that old as hell personality quiz calls her a "picky model student" so she's probably still in school but like where in school is she is she in high school of college or like. I would've placed her around cream puff's age before all of this but I don't know anymore y'know can someone help me?????- (she probably just wasn't designed with one in mind I'm doing all of this for nothing this is the definition of insanity frickin'-)

FINAL EDIT HOPEFULLY: ok I finally have an answer just like after talking to my bigger cr nerd friend uh. Basically the I Want You Every Day music video gives us definite footage of children drinking:

Screenshots courtesy of @void-the-bear (said friend)

Gingerbrave and Cream Puff are drinking the exact same drinks as the adults and these drinks literally look the same as what Sparkling holds in his goddamn sprites

Like you can see the bubbles in some shots it's the same drink it's frickin' champagne-but-we-can't-call-it-that-because-it's-a-kid's-game

But like there is an official short of Sparkling like. Not being able to serve Custard III I think because he's too young???? So uh.

basically the drinking age in Earthbread is "younger than Gingerbrave but older than Custard III" thank you for coming to my TED Talk (fudging. Finally have an answer though at least I think please tell me they didn't try to call this lemonade or something somewhere not the lemonade anything but the lemonade don't make me have a headache again PLEASE-)

[arcadekitten]

Not the same anon, but uh... Could you give us 5 reasons on why YOU like Reginald? I got curious

He's very sentimental to me! He was one of the first characters I created for this world (second only to Mary) and I have owned him for a very long time! I made him at 15 years old (fun fact he was actually made in February of 2015) and I am 25 now and by next year I will have owned him for 10 years!! He has been with me through a lot and helped me out of some rough patches in my life so he means a lot to me. ---

I was very self-indulgent when making him!! I based him off all my favorite tropes and features of male characters that are still my favorites today! I'm often a fan of the boy characters with long hair or glasses or who are bit more studious/academic and he gets to be all that and more! And I think being indulgent with your art is the best way to be! ---

I love drawing him! It's probably because he's one of my favorites already but I always have fun when drawing him! I like playing around and doing fun things with his hair or playing with his facial proportions or putting him in various styles when I branch out a bit from his usual tie+collar! It makes me happy to draw him! ---

I like writing him! Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge but that makes it fun! I love exploring the ways in which he interacts with other characters as well as his speech patterns, and how he often likes to speak more "proper" and "polite" than others around him and I find it endearing, and fun to try and work into his conversations. ---

I like that he's a pufferfish! (Or maybe even porcupinefish if we're specific? I do draw him based more off those even though 'puffer' is like a broad term technically...I'm getting into semantics.) The idea that he has poison running through him always gives me a lot of fun concepts to explore and work with whether it be metaphorically or literally. Sometimes I think I should have created my own original species for everything but animals are pre-built with meaning and metaphors to them and are also easier to collect merch of and be reminded of! So I don't want to beat myself up over it when now I am happily reminded of him whenever I see a fish like him! ♡

[zeroducks-2]

(I hope I worded this right and that it does not come across as rude or snarky, I genuinely want to hear your thoughts) So does that mean your interpretation of Bruce is that he is, how do I say it, “indefinitely fucked/flawed”? That there are not many moments where he did goodness for the pure sake of it? Or it’s something like, 90% flawed 10% good?

It actually depends on who writes him, and on the media we're taking into consideration. I know that this might sound contradictory with my previous post, but I honestly don't think there's one interpretation of a character who's 80+ year old and went through the hands of hundreds of writers.

There are a few things that only "happened once" if you understand what I mean, like Cassandra's story. That story has only one iteration, there are no variants to take into consideration or other Batman media that explore it, so we can judge it by what happened that one time, but this is a rarity among the most important Batman stories. Think of UTRH. Bruce is way less ruthless in the animated version and the ending is very different from what happens in the comics.

Bruce did a lot of good things for the pure sake of it, there's no denying that. He's able to offer a helping hand even to the most monstruous, he will help criminals because he genuinely wants them to better themselves. He will get down to his knees to hug and comfort a crying child, he will use his money and resource and do whatever he can to heal his city.

But he will also beat people to the point of crippling them, he will send folks to jail for the most minor of offences, he considers disabled and "mentally challenged" people as a burden for society.

He loves the kids he keeps around and would die for them. But he also hits Dick and will beat him into a pulp when Dick refuses to do his bidding. He suffered for Jason's death and wanted to kill Joker in the heat of the moment, but will also cut Jason's neck and leave him to die again in order to save Joker's life. As protective and sweet as he is with Tim, he used Stephanie to manipulate him into becoming Robin again, acting terribly towards both kids. And I could go on but you get the picture.

All of these things shouldn't coexist but they do because the character is written by different people with different opinions and understanding of right and wrong, of what is an isn't an acceptable behavior for a man and a parental figure to have, and of who the character is and stands for in general.

It might seem that I don't like Bruce all that much and I surely don't like him as a person, but I also love him as a character for what he represents historically, for the nuance of his many depictions. Though I rarely ever defend him when it comes to people criticising his actions, because those actions need to be criticised. And I will hiss at canon stuff that insists on making Bruce always look like the flawless hero because he ain't it, and at people who claim that nonsense takes are canon (like Cass being his favorite) because I have a personal issue with people taking a headcanon that comes from the fact that they didn't read the comics, and shoving it on everyone's face demanding they accept it as "what actually happened".

I hope it makes sense.

[greenerteacups]

ravenclaw harry is probably the house I find hardest to reconcile with the rest of the canon story. would love to hear your thoughts bc I totally agree that he would have made himself fit into any house as a first year. slytherin harry has a lot of fanon exploration which has had interesting results for sure! hufflepuff harry resonates with the sense of belonging and warmth he was likely yearning for….same actions seem likely to me still. but ravenclaw harry and the friends he’d make (or not make! outcast ish harry being friends with luna and the other alternative-esque ravenclaws?) not sure how that would go! intriguing for sure

housing 11 year olds based on personality is strange business (and all the main characters being in one house is just eh) which is why I love works like lionheart switching that up!

First and foremost, if you want an excellent Ravenclaw!Harry, may I recommend this fic by one of my favorite HPfic authors of all time? It's not quite a Sorting AU, but it's still immaculate, and it's my favorite R!Harry of all time.

I think Houses are first and foremost tools of community and socialization — they're a way to get a bunch of terrified eleven year-olds to make friends, and to break down the immense project of getting to know [INSERT MYTHICAL HOGWARTS DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTIC] people in your cohort at once. The point of doing a Sorting on the basis of personality is to find the place that's going to suit you best; for Slytherins, that's the place that represents their community, their heritage, and their own (fucked up) social set. For Hufflepuffs, that's a really friendly place that focuses on personal development. Gryffindors are adventurers, trailblazers, and explorers; Ravenclaws are inquisitive and interested in deep thinking. To that extent, I can understand why you'd set all of your characters in one house early on, but as the story goes on, it becomes apparent how much the failure to socialize between Houses hurts inter-House relations. It creates much stronger "types" than you might if you just let everyone socialize together.

When Harry is Sorted, we don't know a lot about the dude. We know he's pretty resilient, amicable, and overall nice to people (is immediately on-board and makes friends with Giant Dude Who's Basically Kidnapping You, even though in fairness, he's getting rescued from an abusive home, so — not surprising!) but for the most part, it just gives Normal Guy. It takes a while for Harry's specific brand of introverted weirdness to manifest in the story, and even then, because we're in his POV, we don't see how incredibly awkward he actually is — rereading his dates with Cho is a gauntlet of cringing. He locks on to the people close to him and integrates himself with their group, then basically maintains trajectory until something forces him to stop. He's a really passive dude; 9/10 of the series his him going "what fucking NOW" and running off to put out whatever fire is happening that he's inexplicably implicated in. (He's still heroic, ftr; he does make the choice to risk his life for people, and he does the right thing. But you get the feeling that he would be much happier if he could take a break once in a while and let some other Chosen One take on the serious stuff.)

Apart from the one rec'd above, I can't think of many Ravenclaw!Harry fics that actually take the Sorting as a character challenge. Ravenclaw gets flattened to "the smart House that does great in school" in a lot of fanon — which is kind of strange because the two nerdiest characters, Hermione Granger and Ernie Macmillan, are a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff, respectively. The few Ravenclaws we do get to know, Cho and Luna, are much more defined by their passion for their chosen hobbies than by any scholarly aptitude. Of the few Ravenclaw Sorting AUs out there, a lot of them end up being those Redditor-beloved "Harry Potter but the characters make decisions I think are smarter and then reward them by artificially making those solutions 100% effective" fix-its. A.K.A. fics where the real point is for the author to flex about how smart they are for "getting" the "science" behind a magical storybook world. (No, I don't have strong feelings about these at all, why do you ask?)

[apoptoses]

i gotta know, what order do you rank the VCs

oh man I cannot number order them, to do that would be like picking a favorite cat and they change depending on my mood so like I gotta go with the tier system.

ALSO I never promised anyone here that I had taste, these are my own personal feelings etc etc Mostly I have ranked them based on how much I skim when (or if) I re-read lol

The Vampire Armand- Anne put her whole entire vampirussy into this one like this is the book that has everything!!! There's angst, there's smut, there's cults and kidnapping, there's the beauty and high drama of the Venetian renaissance, what more could you want!! And honestly I think her Armand voice is one of her strongest, right up there with Lestat. You could take an Armand quote out of context and know he's the one speaking. Even my least favorite parts of TVA are still more enjoyable than the best parts of the VC books I don't love.

The Devil's Minion Chapter of QotD specifically - absolute insanity, just banger after banger, not a single word wasted. I could have read an entire novel of this, and again, a unique voice and style! I think this part of the book slaps so hard because it's the first truly modern part of the VC, told from a modern perspective and like. It's so good because every VC reader has probably thought 'wow how exciting would it be to be a vampire's companion/lover' and then Anne actually went and wrote what that would be like. Incredible!

The Vampire Lestat - Getting the back story of the characters introduced in interview is incredible and I feel like Anne finally cut loose and let herself start to be a weirdo with all the world building and entangled relationships. Also just worth the re-read for Armand drop kicking Lestat out of Notre Dame and Marius's insane house of taxidermy and baboons.

Interview with the Vampire- a classic, no other details needed.

Tale of the Body Thief- a polarizing choice I know, but it's such a wild diversion from the typical VC books. Lestat described himself as the James Bond of Vampires and this is the one book that's truly like a tightly written action movie. And Lestat is just so monstrous in it, and in a really complex way- like he's partly reacting to the trauma he went through with Akasha, he's at a low point with self esteem, but then also some of this behavior begs the question of whether being a vampire made him the way he is or whether it's just inherent in him. An underrated VC book tbh.

Blood and Gold- I just love that Anne took on the challenge of writing the life story of a vampire that is thousands of years old. Reading it gives me the same feeling of growing up and realizing that the people you considered 'adults' are just as lost and mentally immature and messed up as you, and never really had any idea what they were doing when child-you thought they had it all together. Also I just love anything that gives me more of the events of Armand's life from another pov.

Queen of the Damned- a great story but I get bogged down by the number of characters and plot lines introduced every time I re-read it, and I end up skimming some of the POVs (or skipping them entirely like baby jenks) I know Anne finally put her foot down and told her editors to fuck off with this one but I wish she'd listened to them just a tiiiiny bit and cut some stuff/expanded other more interesting stuff.

Pandora - Such tight writing!! I wish Pandora hadn't been sidelined in the other books because Anne built such a strong character with her, she deserved better tbh!!

Prince Lestat - it's okay, I just like the sections with my favorite characters and seeing some secondary characters return like Bianca and Allessandra and Antoine. Getting some resolution on what happened with them and where they are closer to the modern day was nice. Also the stuff with Fareed giving Lestat hormones so he could fuck and then get Maury Povich'd eighteen years later was hilarious nonsense, 10/10 Anne insanity. This book just feels like fun trashy vampire stuff (affectionate) in the same way watching True Blood feels like fun trashy vampire stuff, so even if it's not Anne's best work it's still alright imo.

Memnoch the Devil - I simply do not care about God or the Devil or Dora or Rembrandt enough to care about this book, and it only gets ranked below Prince Lestat because I think it drags where PL has a faster pace that allows my brain to skim over the least tasty parts. Really it only makes it to D because of Armand in his dusty jean jacket and Lestat using Dora's uterus as his personal capri sun. Overall though just a slog to get through.

Blood Communion - I just personally do not care for the whole vampire court concept and wish Anne had dropped it after the replimoids. Like I tolerate it in Prince Lestat but ending the series on 'united vampire community' feels off to me when the whole concept of vampires is that they're outsiders struggling with immortality. Also, another kidnapping plot? Anne pls you're better than this.

Merrick - I have erased everything but the Louis bits of this book from my mind. We simply did not need Claudia's vengeful spirit or Louis getting force upgraded and the humanity of him erased by Lestat's ultra-powerful blood but we got it anyways I guess. Very atmospheric though, I do like the return to New Orleans as a setting.

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis - Cruel of Anne to put Atlantis in the title and give us aliens instead of mermaids. The most cracked out VC book in existence, would only re-read if paid to. I have no words for how much I do not care for this book, especially after reading Anne's notes at Tulane and knowing what could have existed instead.

The Vampire Vittorio - such a flop of a vampire he never even gets mentioned in the other VC books. I do not know this man. This book does not exist to me.

[wilsons-striped-ties]

april tc challenge (days 1-30 one shot)

original post here!

1. does your tc have a catchphrase or something they say a lot?

no but he does use "eh" a lot to start his sentence or to refer to people HAHA but there are some phrases he will just repeat in the exact same tone and way like "i don't know" when he's teasing someone

2. what’s your favourite memory with your tc?

i think when i gave him cupcakes on his birthday? the look of surprise on his face was priceless

3. have you dreamt about them? if so, what’s the best dream you’ve had?

yup, i think it was a dream where he asked to take a picture with me LOL i don't really dream about him

4. if you could move away with them, where would you move to? would you bring anyone else?

anywhere he wants to HAHAH it can just be the two of us <3

5. do you know their star sign? are your star signs compatible?

yeah he's a cancer and im a taurus and apparently we're very compatible

6. have they ever given you a gift? if so, what?

he gave our class personalized handwritten notes for graduation!

7. have you ever given your tc a gift?

just gave him a note and baked brownies for him today, i also gave him cookies and more notes and also cupcakes for his birthday!

8. what’s their best physical feature?

his dimples hehe maybe his smile too

9. what’s their best personality trait?

hes really thoughtful and sweet actually, quite sensitive too :'

10. what subject do they teach? do they teach you?

HISTORY yeah he taught me for years three and four

11. how old are they? what’s the age gap between you?

not sure of his age but our age gap is confirm above twenty years

12. if they could teach another subject, what do you think they’d teach?

he used to teach english too but he does just seem like a history teacher

13. have you ever hugged? what was it like?

I WISHHHHHHHHHHHH

14. what’s your dream date with them?

i would love to just go on a walk with him and hold hands or go to a museum or something!!

15. do you have any pictures with them? if so, when from? and if not, do you think you’ll be able to get a picture with them?

i just took a picture with him, i have at least six pictures with him i think, i always grab a picture when i see him HAHAHA

16. is your tc single? do they have any kids? or pets?

married with three kids, not sure about the pets (i offer as tri-*gunshots*)

17. does your tc remind you of any characters, whether they’re from a book, tv show or film etc.?

not sure HAHAHA

18. what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve said or done in front of your tc? did they notice?

oh gosh the other time i served him the wrong coffee order cause i worked at my high school canteen for a bit HAHAHAHA

19. what colour do you associate your tc with?

dark blue, dark red, black, gold, brown

20. is your tc a good teacher?

THE BEST

21. can you remember the last thing you said to your tc or that they said to you?

"bye mr passion fruit" "bye, take care"

(this was today when i was leaving after teachers day)

22. how do you cope when you really miss your tc?

i write about him, look at our pictures, reminisce about some memories HAHAA

23. what animal does your tc remind you of?

i have no idea, tiger maybe?? in my head he's the most beautiful hurricane though. he'd be a really beautiful, complex animal but elegant and sleek too, but mischievous at the same time... maybe a fox? wolf? folf? HAHAHAH

24. if actors had to play you and your tc in a movie, who would you cast as yourself and who would you cast as them? why?

woah im not sure about that, i feel it's hard to play him and i have no idea about myself too whoops

25. what’s your favourite outfit of theirs?

his black/dark blue dress shirts? he always wears the same stuff

26. do you stay in contact outside of school? if so, how? (email, text, letters etc.)

yeah, text

27. in your opinion, what’s the hardest thing about having a tc?

the delusions and waking up to reality... the urge to do something to further your relationship but the fear and legal matters :'

28. do you flirt with your tc? do they flirt back?

I HAD A CHANCE TO BUT CHICKENED OUT i just do it subtly, he does tease me a little though

29. if you could ask your tc absolutely anything and get a completely honest response, what would you ask them?

what cologne did he used to use cause it smelt insanely nice

30. how do you think your tc would react if you told them your feelings?

i don't know... i think he'd just wave it off or maybe smile and look away and scold me or something maybe?

[roulettefeel]

With beforeitrains recent Kai and Sou posts it has me wanting to make up some headcanons for them knowing each other as kids myself. I get a little caught up on how we don’t really have a canon basis for it, but in this post I’ll try to just make stuff up instead of worrying about justifying it with the flimsiest of canon excuses. So with my personal read of the characters, how would I imagine the concept of them having a shared history in the organization?

Ages are up for debate, for simplification I’ll just say I imagine Sou to be three years younger than Kai. Who knows how old Midori really is, just as a basis for what I’m working with I’d imagine that by the time Kai could have started his first year in highschool is when Sou would be in his first year of middle school.

- 20~ years ago

Kai meeting Sou pre Sei involves a Kai who wants to become Asunaro’s top assassin to make his dad proud and a Sou who if we can assume the Executive is his mother may be thought of as a “delicate creature” by her. Small children whose parents put the needs of the organization above their well being. If Sou came along with mommy to work he might get to watch her manipulate and control Gashu, an exemplary vision of the sort of strength Asunaro demands of its members.

Even at such young ages I could see their interactions being limited by the expectations placed on them. They are tools that need sharpened firstly and children second. At best I could see 6~ year old Sou working on a too big for his age pile of homework at the Satou dinner table and if Kai isn’t so desperate for any scrap of affection from his father just yet he might think to share a piece of cake with Sou while on break from training. At worst the only language these kids truly know is violence, with the added social pressure that Sou is born a higher priority to the organization than Kai ever will be so Sou can get away with taking things too far in a way Kai would not be permitted. The festival sketch where we see them fighting and they are winded at a point where Sou has sliced Kai with a knife vs Kai having whacked Sou’s hand with a cooking utensil and disarmed him can be applicable here.

- 17~ years ago

Hard to judge ages but I imagine Kai met Sei around the same time Keiji met Mr Policeman (with how Kai and Keiji are the same age). I have wondered if Midori had some sort of personal connection with Rio for him to use Ranger’s AI when he was shoving in “strong” AIs into Maple, why them over any other AI specifically? Could be some interesting potential for Sou and Sei to have known each other before Sei died. If we’re imagining Sou semi regularly tagging along with mommy on her in person meetings then a few years into it he’s probably excited to meet up with Uncle Gashu and his playmate Kai~. Sou might have played with Sei too while Sei still lived with his dad, so meeting Sei in the Satou household for the first time -- with how much of a brat Sou is and how prickly Sei is over the grief he isn’t afforded, ohh that is a recipe for disaster. If Sou doesn’t take endurance classes like the assassin kids I can imagine Sei at some point tricking Sou into taking a class with them and embarrassing him with shock torture training or any of the other awful things they go through regularly. When Kai and Sei are on better terms with each other then Kai has the comfort of having someone actually on his team, and Sou would enjoy the added challenge of messing with them both.

- 10~ years ago

Interaction between Kai and Sou I think would cut off around 10 years prior to the death game with Kai possibly being assigned to the Chidouins while he was still a teenager (but finished with his education).

After Sei’s death the Satou family isn’t the same.Gashu is a broken man raising a son to be as broken and loyal to the organization as he is, because that’s the only way for people like them to survive in Asunaro. By the time Sou is in middle school I imagine he’d be under pressure to act like an adult so the older the boys get the more distance is put between them. Maybe Kai could get an assignment to have Sou under observation, get some of Kai’s stalker skills tested before his real assignment. Kai also knows some coding so it’s not impossible for him to be involved in the creation of Sou’s AI. With Kai stalking him Sou could get some fun out of trying to evade Kai or on the other hand trying to catch Kai in the act. But mostly their relationship shifts towards being coworkers who are doing work.

- misc

It’s a government requirement for children to be in school up to the end of middle school, so I imagine Asunaro has a public school where they mix their young members with normal children. Then instead of highschool I imagine they get tracked to specialized programs that might not even legally certify them outside of the organization as another way the organization traps members within it.

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

For the ask game!

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

🥳 Why did you start writing fanfic?

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

💕 there are different things I really like about a lot of my fics, but honestly it's Blood Wisdom. Even though I've written 71k (!!) more of the story since Blood Wisdom and I think grown as a writer a lot since then... it's Blood Wisdom. One of the reasons that I started to write Strange Wonders was because I just thought that the ending of Dracula was lackluster. It's fine, but it starts off this Very strong psychological drama between Jonathan and Dracula and the way it ends... You might as well have car chase music playing tbh. Dracula doesn't speak past October 3rd. He's a total non-character in his own climax. It's cool that Jonathan kills him, but you're not in Jonathan's head in anyway... I wanted to end it as a psychological drama between Jonathan and Dracula and it was just really really satisfying to me to write. You know when things are just going great and you're sitting at your laptop and it's like you're in an elevated state of being and your energy is up bc you're writing it and it's like you're in your story and you start to feel the emotions you're writing for your characters? That's really what it was like for me to write Jonathan and Dracula's last verbal exchange. Like there's a line in that story where Mina says that Jonathan left the study in an agitated state and went out for a walk after he wrote his ending, and I included that because I left my living room in an agitated state and took a walk after I wrote that scene as well. I had just the best time.

And even though I would say New Woman has really given me the most valuable practice at adaptational plotting, Blood Wisdom was really the first successful time I had to sit down with a plotting problem and figure out "hey, I need these story beats from this moment. What do I need to do to get myself there?" It was a big moment of proving to myself that I could do that sort of a thing, and even though the story was only under 30k at that point in time it meant a lot to me that I had written a longer story with a beginning, middle and end.

🥳 The year was 2010, I was 10 years old and was very guilty telling fanfiction.net that I was 13 years old so that I could read James and Sarah fan fiction for PBS's American Revolution cartoon Liberty's Kids... I decided I wanted to write James and Sarah fanfiction myself and spent an afternoon writing maybe a page before I accidentally deleted everything and never started again because I was so discouraged. The next fanfic I would write and actually publish would be a BBC Sherlock fic in 2016. 🤣

I think my reasons are the same as anyone else's really. I get inspired by fiction and want to fill in the gaps. While this is not true for all of the fanfiction that I've written, I definitely tend to write my best work when I want to see something happen in a story that I don't get to see.

🦈 I've only ever written one scene with Lucy in it but I don't think she'll prove very difficult to write for. The character that I struggled with the most was probably Van Helsing. I know that Uncommon Horrors and the Resilience of the Dawn were in fact supposed to be one fic, but I switched perspective because I was like God damn I can't be in his head 24/7 anymore this is killing me. Just in terms of doing a pastiche of how Stoker has him talk. It's all right when he's just saying dialogue, but when the entire description of everything, dialogue and thought and all that has to be in that style as well... it was challenging. But I do like some of the lines that I wrote as Van Helsing. I am moderately satisfied with the end product but a lot of blood sweat and tears came before it lol.

Thanks friend!

[cannibalvillains]

About shipping my muses, n stuff.

Gonna keep this a a constant WIP, as I figure stuff out. But I decided this could be fun to make for mutuals who maybe wanna ship. Give yall an angle.

Generally ship tropes I like; Arranged Marriage, Toxic, Hate-fucking, queerplatonic stuff, partners in love and crime aka "murder boyfriends", whatever the Addams Family had going, tragedy

(.... Sorry im not awfully good with pure fluff, just don't do it for me. Also; pointing to my no smut rp rule)

Brief details on each respective muse are under the cut!

MHA______________________________________________________

Dabi (demiromanic bi)

Tbh if my Dabi actually has feelings for sb id say its time to run. He is obsessive as hell and he can't do relationships normally. He has straight up stalked several other muses by this point. It was for different reasons but affection is definitely one of them. Also expect it to be undoubtly toxic. He can genuinely love but also it's god awful. He's honestly most easy to deal with on a "we only fuck and nothing else" type basis.

Ships i like for him; Shigaraki, Twice, Hawks (only toxic hatefucking), ...

Overhaul (aroace, repulsed type aka "dont fucking touch me")

Right out the gate: don't expect normal relationship dynamics with him. Just don't. Fact aside that he generally just sucks with people, Im serious when I say he's aroace. He will never fall in love with another character and he will happily die a virgin because that stuff just makes him beyond uncomfortable. That said, I wrote him in tight knit relationships before and they have been some of my fav in recent past. Either way it's a slowburn.

Ships I like for him; Kurono, Nagant, ...

Spinner (bi-curious)

Tbh this man is open to be shipped with almost anyone. I haven't really done stuff with him yet, and he is also very open. Doesn't think about this stuff right now but he would try his best if put in the situation.

Ships I like for him; ???

Eri WE DO NOT SHIP THE CHILD

Enji (disaster bi, in denial abt liking men)

Taking current canon into consideration; Enji is old, tired and doesn't seem himself as "attractive" anymore. His marriage was more duty than love and these days he is most in of all concerned with fixing things with his kids. Trying to ship him at that age would take a lot of convincing. Trying to get him to cheat on his wife like 10 to 20 years prior is an option but can only end terribly. (please I absolutely wanna do that!!) Anything before his marriage would be battling his drive to become the number one hero. (also fun)

Ships I like for him; All Might ( yes its terrible ), Rei ( yes its complicated ), ...

Twice (gay, hopeless)

He's a mess. You may think this means he best works with other people who are well put together, but I (terrible person) like to see spiral, together with other messes. Enjoy.

Ships I like for him; Dabi, anyone LOV tbh (also just purely platonic stuff; we love to see it), ...

Bakugou (bi)

Main criteria for people Bakugou likes; they stand up to him and give him challenges. Just straight up best compatible with muses who are either an asshole equal to himself, or just say "No, stop being a dick. I won't take your shit." If your muse just follows along with whatever he does he will not give them the time of day. He won't care.

Ships I like for him; Occhako, Monoma, Fujimi, ...

JJK_______________________________________________________

Sukuna (aro, an egnima)

I dunno yet what gets him... but you gotta be strong else he will just crush you and be bored. Probably best to get his interest through powerful Jujutsu/fighting skills though, obviously.

Ships I like for him; Gojo, Uraume, Toji, ...

Gojo (GAYYYY)

Definitely struggles to relate to people with his whole "its lonely being the strongest" business. Definitely not easy to connect to and will not be honest about his feelings. But BOY does he seek connection! Pathetic little man!

Ships I like for him; Geto(duh, tho tbh also love it as just best friends), Sukuna, Nanami, ...

Yuji (???)

I dunno yet, somebody give him Jennifer Lawrence! Or his former classmate, that seemed cute. Either way he is a sunshine boy who probably clicks easily with people but later in the story of jjk it may be difficult to get close, the trauma of losing people and all that....

Ships I like for him; ???

Maki (???)

I dunno yet either, give her Jennifer Lawrence as well! Ok no, forreal though. I think she needs someone who can help her relax and not be so stuck on her goals all the time (tho do support her goals... and shittalk the Zen'in clan together...!!)

Ships I like for her; ???

Kenjaku (EVIL)

Would probably fuck anyone. I dunno if you should get near them though. There is like.... ALL THE RED FLAGS. Doesn't care much for the people they start relationships with. To them it's just all a game.

Ships I like for them; Yuji's dad, Gojo (while disgused as Geto, def in a toxic af way), ...

OP________________________________________________________

Law (gay af)

Honestly, this guy has a terrible taste in men and he knows it. He also hates it. He wants to have a good relationship but he got a tendency to get into the ones he regrets, and doesn't regret, but so damn regrets. I think there is a lot of fun kinda drama to be had here.

Ships I like for him; Kidd, Bepo, Zoro, Robin ( yes i said hes gay... they just match ), ...

Doffy (bi and awful)

On the outside Doffy is sweet, charming and flirty, makes all the compliments and expresses his care for his person of interest. He is also manipulative, possessive and most of all cares for himself.... YOU SHOULD RUN.

Ships I like for him; ...

BLEACH___________________________________________________

Zagetsu (nope)

Eh. I just have him to be a creature tbh. If you wanna ship with him genuinely, CONVINCE ME.

Ships I like for him; NAH

[redheadedbrunette]

Cool so I reread the series and I noticed a lot more than I did the first two times I read it which is fun. The relationship between Ben and Erica is more explored than I remembered which is good and I can definitely see her character arc a lot clearer.

X is still my least favorite book and there’s absolutely a corner that Gibbs wrote himself into on that one unless he’s entirely giving up on the idea of having Ben and co. be secret agents.

Ben’s a lot more of a competent spy than I remember too, which is refreshing.

I also completely forgot that all 10 of these books happen in the span of like a year and a half which is hilarious.

Oh and the age gap seems like something that would be a lot more of an issue if there weren’t only like 300 people in the world they could have contact with. Even Erica and Josh had a bit of a gap since she had to have been 14/15 or so while he was 17/18. A gap of 2.5 years would be problematic for normal kids but I think different rules would apply.

I'm so glad it was clearer on a second go around! Honestly, I didn't even really see it all that clearly until I reread the series a couple years ago (SSAS came out my first week of college) and had a lot more experience with how stories work on a fundamental idea. Erica's development is very much in the background, but when you're looking for it (excluding SSPX, but that's a different rant) it's so clear and interesting and I love it.

SSPX bothers me for SO MANY REASONS the biggest of which is that Mr. Gibbs puts the message before the overarching plot of everything, and then! It's not even a relevant message! Like, what twelve year old is hardcore believing QAnon (it's pretty obviously meant to be that or something similar). I feel like something could have been achieved and a message about privacy, like Murray makes getting a video of Ben part of some TikTok knockoff challenge, because that seems like a much more likely thing kids would do, but gotta make fun of people who remember what the news said two years ago and comparing it to what they say now! Can't have people with good memories! But yeah, it does shoot the series in the foot kind of, and I understand the reasoning behind why things were done the way they were! I just don't agree with it most of the time.

It's even funnier when you realize that it's not a year and a half evenly spread out, it's one mission his first year with five months before summer, one that summer, and seven his second year. Eight if you want to count SSGS and SSBI as different missions (I go back and forth as to whether or not I do). It's so funny. Please give poor Ben a break.

And yes! Ben is actually so much more competent than people seem to give him credit for sometimes. It's just that his skill set tends to be less flashy and useful in battle scenes, but he's very much the chess master of the group. He's the one planning and strategizing, and all the karate moves in the world aren't going to do you any good if you can't actually foil the plans.

My reasoning for why I'm okay with the age gap is because the narrative treats them as equals who are more or less in the same place in life. Like, yes she's two classes ahead of him, but for all intents and purposes, they're teamed up together constantly with others in Ben's class and I think Erica is the only one we really know about in her class (can't remember Chip's age, but he might be? idk, doesn't really matter). It's never dwelt on, and it bothers me when people try to make a deal about it! Like, they're not going to be in the same place in their lives forever. It's high school. Almost no one marries the person they dated in high school. I've long held that they'd break up sometimes after Erica graduates and starts her adult life while Ben is still in school (or something similar depending on how Mr. Gibbs decides to do things moving forward).

[scattered-winter]

!!

this is rowan :] (playlist)

picrew link

the picrew on the left is him at the beginning of the story and the one on the right is after he's suffered The Horrors (tm) because this specific story is like a greek tragedy. every character (especially rowan) is trapped by the Narrative Curse and they're doomed to become part of the cycle that both made and destroyed their predecessors and their fates were determined before their stories even began and their endings were already written but the love was there. anyway

if you've seen me ramble abt the 2013 movie epic, then you'll know that I was annoyed at how something with such incredible worldbuilding could be sooo spectacularly shitty. so some of the elements in this were inspired by the movie but most of it is shit I came up with. but anyway they're a bunch of really tiny people who live in a huge sentient forest that's magically and intrinsically connected to them in really deep and profound ways (sort of a "I am a part of you and you are a part of me" kinda vibe because like .... the forest Created Them and they care for the forest and when they die their bodies decompose and give back to the forest and it's a CYCLE. everything in this is a fucking cycle btw.) but the king or queen of the forest is The Most Connected to the forest and they can communicate with the forest itself and all of its moving parts, and when the king/queen dies, their spirit merges with the sentient forest, so really the forest "spirit" is just an amalgamation of hundreds of past kings and queens and the actual forest itself, and nobody really knows if the forest was sentient without the spirits of the kings and queens or if it had always been that way. but the forest chooses each new king/queen from the people by sensing who's more connected to the forest than others, and who's most fit to rule. by tradition, the current king/queen takes the newly chosen ruler to live at the mother tree (yes, that's based off of actual mother trees in nature :] because I think they're cool as fuck) with them to be trained in politics/mastery over their connection to the forest. the current ruler remains in power until their successor fully masters their abilities, which usually doesn't happen until they're well into their twenties or thirties. then when the new king/queen is old enough (usually around fifty or older), the forest chooses a successor for them to train, and the cycle happens all over again

as you may have guessed, rowan is the next successor to the throne. but before he was chosen to be the next king by an all-powerful, all-knowing sentient forest, he was a knight-in-training alongside his best friend willow (the knights also have extensive lore but if someone asks abt willow I'll explain them in his post instead since it's more relevant to him). they started out as rivals during training, but over time became very close friends. however, once the forest chose rowan as the new king, everything changed. rowan was whisked away to the mother tree to be trained as the new king under the tutelage of the current ruler, queen olive (my wife <3), and willow was left behind to finish his training. because of their separate duties (rowan having to learn how to rule an entire kingdom and be the spiritual bridge between the people and the forest, and willow doing extensive training missions and shit) they didn't see each other for an entire year before running into each other during a celebration at the mother tree. they spent the entire time catching up and getting reacquainted, and willow decided to participate in the trials* that were coming up.

*the trials are how each ruler's inner guard is chosen; knights who want to be a bodyguard compete through a series of challenges, including speed/endurance/strength tests, contests of wit, and gladiator-style arena matches. at the end, the king/queen in training can choose 2 or 3 from the top 5-10 knights who competed. the trials are basically the forest's competitive sport that they all watch and get super invested in, and for the week of competition it's like one big long celebration (kinda like the world cup or olympics)

willow competes in the trials, and rowan gets a front-row seat, being the guy who has to choose someone from the ranks of competitors and all. there's 110% a scene where willow walks out onto the arena shirtless and rowan's like O.O

and obviously, willow ends up as one of the top finishers, and rowan chooses him and one another, sienna (<333) to be his inner guard. from there, they all live at the mother tree together and engage in Shenanigans (tm) as they basically just. fall in love and goof off and be kids.

but then. they get one hell of a reality check when queen olive is murdered by someone on the inside, and rowan, still a teenager with very little grasp on his powers/skills, becomes king. overnight he suddenly has the entire kingdom on his shoulders, and a murderer/traitor within his own walls to find, and war brewing with the neighboring kingdoms, and his only allies are willow, sienna, and ash (head of the guard, and formerly queen olive's bodyguard/wife). and this is where the themes of narrative cycles and being consumed by the forest really come into play because rowan is shoved into the cycle of Being Part Of The Forest and being consumed by it. and losing himself to the forest and the spirits of the past kings and queens. and the more he masters his powers, the whiter his hair gets (both as a physical symptom of the power changing him, and as a symbolic thing of how the throne ages/drains him even though he's still so so young. plus I'm a sucker for white hair).

I'm still not exactly sure how his story ends, because on the one hand, tragic endings make me soooo unwell but on the other, there's really no other way for this story to go. he's part of the forest and he'll be consumed by it, body and soul. just like olive before him, and the queen before olive, and the king before her, and the queen before him. this was always how his story is gonna end, even if it makes me want to bite through my drywall

send me a !! and I'll introduce you to an oc!

[veresiine]

Headcanon and thoughts dump; the vast majority about Leon because I've been having almost nonstop blorbo thoughts for over half a year, but there's some stuff on some other SwSh characters too in the background.

Topics:

Ages

Battle Tower

Leon as League Administration

Darkest Day and Eternatus

On Dragapult

Hop and Leon's Family and Early Childhood

Consequences of this

Others' Family Backgrounds

Rose

Relationships and Orientations

How I got to be so obsessed anyway

Actual content under the cut due to length

Ages:

At the time of the game, Leon is 22, and Hop and the protagonist are 14-15 years old. Sonia is the same age as Leon, maybe a few months older. Raihan is maybe around two years older than Leon and Sonia. Nessa's around the same age but I'm hoping she's closer to Raihan's age than Leon's and Sonia's, because I sincerely hope she wasn't dealing with the double whammy of being a child athlete AND a child model for a long time, because that's just FAR too much pressure to put on someone, even if she seems so well-adjusted.

So this means that Leon was Champion for 12 years. Yes, in the fic I wrote, I'd had him 20 years old and champ for 10, but I have since changed my mind after thinking it over for a while.

Battle Tower:

In addition to actually winning and losing, Battle Tower gives points for battling style / showmanship, and takes points away for damage to the surroundings.

Leon is in charge of operating the tower and is also its final boss (most of the time; sometimes other pro trainers like Raihan or Mustard might step in briefly), but he's graded on the same system as everyone else, and he had lost quite a few points for damaging the battle area before he and his pokemon re-trained themselves to be more restrained and less destructively showy. It's a different style from how he battles in the stadium!

Leon also considered that the gym challenge requiring endorsements means both a lot of nepotism and also, talented trainers without connections being SOL; he's since added the ability to get an endorsement from Battle Tower performance.

Battle Tower supports itself financially both from a small entrance fee, and from virtual tickets to higher-level matches; all this gets turned around into paying the staff and providing prizes. This is not a for-profit thing; this is a "let's have fun and make each other stronger!" thing that has to be financially solvent to justify its existence to the League

Leon as League Administration:

Instead of one single assistant in everything (i.e. Oleana), Leon ends up with a group of 4-5 senior League staff he goes to for advice a lot, and who help keep him on track.

He's known half of them since he was a kid so at this point they're basically extended family

He was still pretty emotionally conflicted and fragile for a few months after the whole Darkest Day thing and then losing his title, and needed some time to regroup and find himself again. Leon was in touch with the League during this time, and trying to do his part to untangle the League and Macro Cosmos and deal with the fallout of the Darkest Day, but he wasn't doing anything in any official capacity; he just kind of stuck himself in the middle of things and did what he could, mental health permitting, in between training sessions.

And he wasn't actually offered the chairman position until those few months had passed and Leon had had some time to sort himself out, and some of the investigations had wrapped up, helping to clear the League's image.

Rose had Leon attend all kinds of events and sometimes listen in on meetings while he was Champion; it wasn't Rose's intent to train Leon to be his successor as chairman, but it does mean that Leon's not going in completely blind; he has some prior experience.

Leon is concerned about the League, yeah, but he mostly just wants the region's trainers to have fun as they reach for the top, provided they play fair. He's a lot more hands-off than Rose was, with one major exception:

During the gym challenges, he lets meetings slide a bit so he can watch as many of the battles as he can, and has taken to delivering little notes to the challengers, encouraging them or telling them an aspect of their style that really impressed him. And if a trainer is really struggling, he'll praise their perseverance.  He aims to get each challenger at least once in a season so no one feels left out; part of this is thinking back to Sonia.

And in the years after that, he extends the note thing to gym trainers and League staff as well during the challenge season, since they need encouragement too!

He really wishes there were more battles and fewer meetings, but that's part of what his involvement in battle tower is for; getting him to blow off steam so he can tackle more admin stuff.

Darkest Day and Eternatus:

Leon was up there fighting Eternatus for a few hours by the time Hop and the PC arrived to save the day; after all, the protagonist and Hop had time to fly to the opposite side of Galar, wander through the Slumbering Weald, get the artifacts, fly back up to Hammerlocke, battle Rose, and THEN finally confront Eternatus. With a battle that long, mistakes are inevitable.

There is security camera footage of the first 15-20 minutes of Leon vs Eternatus, but the cameras got knocked out after that.

I think the anime mentioned something about Galar particles converting to electrical power? And presumably they do so naturally at some rate, but can be more efficiently converted with the power of technology.

Before Dynamax bands were introduced to the stadiums, Magnolia had made SURE to test that the Galar particle exposure involved in using a Dynamax band had negligible side effects on trainer and pokemon, and had introduced some kind of shielding to make it even safer. The one dynamax per side per battle rule is also there out of an abundance of caution.

But that's Galar particles from a Power Spot, not a source of INFINITE Galar particles. Exposure to the levels Galar particles and electrical effects released by a rampaging ETERNATUS cannot be healthy, never mind whatever type of poison Eternatus is packing. Exactly what effect, temporary and lasting, all this had on Leon and his pokemon, I don't know, and I frequently change my mind and up the stakes, but whatever it did, it was bad, and some of it was permanent.

The player character, Hop, and their pokemon weren't facing Eternatus for anywhere near as long, so they shouldn't be as affected.

... Physically, anyhow. Everyone who was present for that battle is probably more than a little shaken-up, psychologically.

On Dragapult:

I love Charizard as much as the next person but I feel that Dragapult as a pokemon is a better representation of Leon

Dragapult is Galar's pseudo-legendary, and pseudo-legendaries usually go to / reflect champions.

Though it is not 1:1, as Hoenn had 2 pseudo-legendaries and while Steven and Metagross fit to a T, Salamance is just kinda there, vibes-wise. Being awesome without being linked to a trainer

Also Dragapult gives Leon 2 repeat types on his team; 2 dragon (haxorus and dragapult) and 2 ghost (aegislash and dragapult) and it's nice to have that theme/consistency.

And Dragapult's evos match his story a bit. Dreepy are super weak; Leon started out as a kid out in the middle of nowhere with only one friend and not much else going for him. Drakloak look after their younger evolutionary relatives, it's their whole Thing; Leon was left to raise his younger brother, and also his entire dream is to look after / inspire all Galar's other trainers to encourage their growth. And then Dragapult is a pseudo-legendary; Leon's a champion for a long time, and Dragapult have the whole thing about lock-on and targeting; pokemas Leon has a special skill that makes his moves NEVER MISS, regardless of base accuracy (this only applies to Leon's sync pair with Charizard though).

Also I like the idea of there just being Dreepies everywhere, and all the Dreepies flocking to Leon as much as they do to Dragapult; he's totally their dad too.

Hop and Leon's Family and Early Childhood:

Leon and Hop's grandparents' are their mum's parents; their dad married in and wasn't particularly well-liked by the grandparents. When Leon was little, they tried not to argue in front of him, for his sake, but Leon probably picked up on some of the tension anyway.

Then the dad got sick when Leon was around 5; mum was busy being his caregiver, and the grandparents were busy with tending the wooloo flock and also errands; this left Leon to pick up some of the household labor in the form of more chores than expected of a kid that age. Mum was concerned about offloading too much onto her kid, but the grandparents didn't really care.

Then mum was pregnant with Hop and that meant that she couldn't do as much around the house, and so more work fell to Leon. Then Hop was born, and their dad was taking a turn for the worse, and it was not a very happy situation to grow up in, even if Hop and Leon's actual parents did care about their sons and wanted them to have a happy childhood, but unfortunately, circumstances didn't work out that way, and the grandparents were borderline neglectful, in part because of their feelings about their daughter's husband.

So yes! Leon does have some domestic skills! Like cooking and cleaning and the like! He's not great at it, since he hasn't had much practice since he became Champion, but the basics are in there somewhere!

This is also where we get Sonia's observations, both in-game and in the anime, that Leon didn't have time to spend with other kids, because he was busy helping around the house and with his little brother, and 'practically raised' Hop. Which isn't to say that their mother did nothing! She certainly tried, and after the dad finally passed away, and she'd had some time to mourn, she made a point of trying to do more for her kids and to get them to have more happy childhood memories.

This is how Leon ends up going somewhere and getting his Charmander. I've heard theories that he must've gotten him from Mustard on the Isle of Armor (and that's probably when he trained there) and I am definitely not opposed to this (it makes sense!) but also haven't directly addressed it.

Hop would have been 3 years old or so at the time Leon left on the gym challenge, old enough to remember his promise about becoming Champion.

Consequences of this:

Hop never knew his father; he died when Hop was too young to remember. Leon is the closest person to filling that role for Hop.

Leon does remember his father, but not very well. He mostly remembers how much his father meant to his mum, and how much his death broke her. He does have a few good memories of his dad playing with him and reading stories to him, but as the years passed, he realized that Rose had ended up being more of a father figure to him than his own dad had a chance to be.

No one in the family really talks about Leon and Hop's father; Hop learned quickly that asking his mum made her sad, asking his grandparents made them angry, and asking Leon mostly got him shrugs as answers.

Mum is very protective of her kids' health after what happened with their father; this is part of what caused Leon to take such an interest in fitness, as a way of saying 'don't worry, mum!' He does really enjoy being physically active in general, and always has, but that's an additional layer on top of it.

Leon probably had her worried sick with all his wandering around lost; she was extremely grateful for Sonia (and Yamper) for bringing him back from wherever he'd ended up. She's glad that Hop doesn't have the same issues, and only ends up in the middle of nowhere if he wants to.

Because Hop didn't bear as much witness to hostilities from his grandparents, he takes more interest in them and their Wooloo flock than Leon did, and his grandparents are the ones to let him pick his favorite Wooloo to be his own personal pokemon.

Leon actively tried to keep Hop away from the spotlight so he'd have a chance to have a normal childhood; Rose encouraged this as well, but Leon eventually decided that Hop was ready to give it a shot (as of the start of the game), since he wanted his little brother to have a chance at having an adventure with pokemon, too, as much as he hoped Hop wouldn't have to deal with all the pressures and expectations of the public. This caused some friction with Rose, but they talked it out and smoothed things over eventually.

Others' Family Backgrounds:

Sonia is not Magnolia's only grandchild, but she is the only one who's stayed in the area. Magnolia had a few kids; at least one of them moved to a different region following their career path. Some of her grandchildren probably did, too.

Sonia is also one of, if not the oldest of Magnolia's grandchildren.

Raihan has a sister who works in the archives. He lived with his sister, away from his parents, for a few months, before going to live entirely on his own. The circumstances behind this change pretty much every time I bounce them around in my head.

At least one of Raihan's parents is/was an architect.

Rose:

HHHHHHHHHH

I've considered the possibility that Rose gave Leon his Aegislash (either at its current evolutionary form or earlier ones), since Rose is a Steel-type specialist, and also there's Aegislash's whole pokedex entry about it sometimes being manipulative.

Macro Cosmos and the League being so closely tied together is only a recent development, and it's Rose's doing. Separating the two entities is going to be a long process.

Rose genuinely feels terrible about how things turned out. He didn't want anyone to get hurt (physically, anyhow); though he had accepted it as a possibility, he wanted to avoid it in possible, and thought that no matter what happened, it would be worth it in the end. Spoiler alert: it wasn't. He screwed up big time, and I hope he realizes WHY he screwed up.

That said, I HC he was the immediate successor of that one Chairman who tried to rig matches, causing Mustard to leave the League, and because of that, Rose is very popular for having 'drained the swamp' in his own time. League veterans like Opal and Kabu really appreciated him for that. Opal appreciates him significantly less now that she’s gotten Bede to open up to her.

Relationships and Orientations:

Nessa and Sonia are in a relationship

Other than that it's just a big murky mess of 'I make every character I get my hands on bi and/or aspec, though exactly what flavor combination depends on the weather, the day of the week, and what's on sale at the grocery store'

How I got to be so obsessed anyway:

I didn't actually like Leon at first. He and Hop gave me name-related psychic damage (I could explain but that would require at least 3 paragraphs of personally identifiable information as context), and his initial interactions with Sonia rubbed me the wrong way.

After that rough introduction, it was 'ah it's this guy again;' he existed and I had no strong feelings one way or another. He still annoyed me slightly, but he was helpful and clearly trying his best.

Then he had Charizard shield Hop and the player, and I decided that if nothing else, I appreciated how much he cared, and what he was willing to do.

And then

AND THEN

His losing animation hit me right in the feels. When I saw him pull his cap over his eyes, my first thought was "I understand this man on a spiritual level". Everything about that animation was perfect. I could see myself in him. Everything fit into place. Terrible sense of direction? Check. And that's not something I often see in fiction; I guess there is Ace from HnKnA but I'm not a fan of yanderes, thanks. Hiding emotions behind a hat? Check. That was a staple of high school me. The anger, but forcing it down and letting it go? Over the course of a few seconds? *chef’s kiss*.

More importantly, pushing himself to be the strongest, to help others, to bring them up to his level, to entertain, and to protect the region? That's the exact kind of power fantasy I used to try to live in MMOs and part of why I (almost) always play a tank. And of course, with being a tank comes having an ego, but Leon doesn't put people down to build himself up, which is really nice to see in such a confident character.

Then everything I learned about him after that just made me love him more.

TWILIGHT WINGS. All of it. That honestly made me go from loving Leon to loving all of the SwSh cast, honestly; it even got me to sympathize with Oleana! I mean yes, what she did to Bede (and to Goh and Sonia in the anime) was beyond messed up and I am not justifying her actions, but at the same time, I appreciate her character.

Battle Tower outfit 12/10! A solid half of my blorbos over the years are fancy bastard wizards and battle tower Leon gets to look the part too! It's great!

I love how the anime and pokemon masters fleshed out his interactions with other characters, especially with Sonia and Raihan.

I could go on and on and on but I won't, especially as there's some self-recognition through the blorbo I'm not ready to admit to

[doofnoof]

if you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog

Ough okay!!!!

Uhhh

1) I have a birthmark on the back of my right leg, it's lighter than everywhere else

2) I'm allergic to apricots!!! Apricot marmalade (or whatever it is. It's like a jam with many orange fruits in it but it's mostly Apricot and Oranges and I eat oranges all the time. Apricots are the only fruit included in the marmalade/jam that I don't eat much of) makes my throat and mouth itchy, which is too bad bc I think it's Delicious. At least I'm still good to eat peaches and nectarines!!! But not Apricots, weirdly enough. My aunt is allergic to peaches, so it Tracks.

3) I LOVE ZOMBIES SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!! The very first horror movie I ever saw was Resident Evil, and I blame it for my current love of zombies to this day. The way my mom has always recalled it to me, I was 4 years old and had seen my parents set up the PS4 to watch movies a few times and decided to try it out myself, and Resident Evil was in the PlayStation from the night before (the adults must've been watching it while I was sleeping) and I sat down and watched it, and then watched it again and again afterwards because I thought Alice was the coolest (most beautiful) woman I'd ever seen, and the Zombies were all super cool too. I was especially fond of the Lickers (the things with the long tongues) and I used to imagine taking one for walkies and scratching it's brain-head-thing like it was a dog. When I was eventually caught my mom was Very Upset but impressed that I'd figured it out all on my own and that I had it all figured out for like a week without anyone noticing, but the very first time I had a zombie themed nightmare Resident Evil was put on the High Up Adult Shelf never to be seen again until I hit double digits. Funny enough, a little while later I was watching my dad play Fallout 3 and when he walked into a bar and started talking to a Zombie Bartender I decided he was the most handsome man I'd ever seen and became Smitten with him. Come to find out, he was a Ghoul (not actually a Zombie) named Gob and he's still one of my most cherished favorite characters of all time. On top of that, when I was like 10 I could quote all of Zombieland word for word, for each and every character, and without even looking up from what I was doing list which zombies were in a scene. My Uncle found it kinda creepy the first time he saw me do it until eventually it became a game to see how long I could quote perfectly without messing up. I was entirely normal and not at all weird or obsessed with Warm Bodies (which absolutely didn't tap into my crush on Gob and my obsession with Romeo and Juliet, which I absolutely didn't read cover to cover in elementary school. /s. The school librarian wouldn't let me take the book I'd wanted home with me because it was Too Advanced so I picked a children's book out of spite, and once I was done reading it I wanted to read some more but had picked a book too far below my reading level, spotted a book abt the same size as the book I'd wanted at school on my grandma's bookshelf, saw the Ye Olde English, and decided I was gonna go for a challenge anyways bc Hecc You I Don't Do What You Tell Me. I didn't understand all of the jokes so I looked them up on the public library's computer later that week and once the stuff I didn't understand was Understood it became a personal favorite. I was insufferable abt it in English Class once I hit Highschool.)

Wow that was long!!! But zombies are super cool; as a metaphor, as a monster, as a marketing ploy, just. Zombies.

[madeimpact]

10, 26 for the munday meme??

Shh pretend it's still munday || @beinfriends

Gonna answer 10 under a cut because it talks about some of the, uh...more difficult subject matter in End of Evangelion

∗ 26﹕ who  was  your  very  first  muse ?  would  you  consider  writing  them  now ?

I answered this already, but just to humor the question, I'll refer back to my other answer last time this question came around the blog. Old Vocaloid self insert that predates tumblr.

Hm...I dunno if I'd consider writing her as she last was before she kinda retreated into the recesses of my brain. I'd probably end up completely reworking her into her own OC ( she was already sort of evolving into her own character in her later stages anyway ).

∗ 10﹕ is  there  a  piece  of  your  character’s  canon  that  you  refuse  to  accept ?

I've talked at length before about how I feel about the infamous hospital scene in End of Evangelion. EoE Shinji is just overall a very different, more vitriolic character compared to what we see in the anime. I'll go ahead and link this meta I reblogged a while back because I basically directly quote it whenever I'm asked about this, they were able to put the vague feelings I had into words way better than I ever could LMAOSDHKDFJLG

I don't really outright say it didn't happen, but rather I try to figure a mental process that's a little more in line with the anime that would result in...yanno...that. I just feel like it's a little bit more of a challenge to do it that way you feel? Writing it out entirely feels like the easy, "it's problematic therefore it doesn't exist" solution, which really doesn't work for what Eva tries to be. In the past I've explained it as a lapse in judgement that not even Shinji knows how to explain ( not the most satisfying or in-depth, I know, but this is something I've been struggling with for years ). With him strangling Asuka on the beach, I've written it as some combination of him acting on pent up rage about how Asuka treated him, plus him needing to know he exists in the physical world again, therefore being able to touch someone. Mind you — holding up a big flashing neon sign here so no one gets it twisted — that's not to say any of this is justified behavior. It's not. EoE Shinji does fucked up shit, there's no two ways about it. I've just...tried getting into Anno's head about the whole thing, I guess. I've tried to think whether there's a universe in which this stuff happens. And of course, I'd NEVER actually write this shit out in RP. Not the time or place.

I just...I have a lot of complicated feelings about End of Eva. I don't actively dislike it as a film overall — it has some good things that can connect back to the anime, like "anywhere can be heaven as long as you have the will to live" and Shinji's ultimate rejection of Instrumentality. But it's hard to reconcile several elements of it with the ending of the anime ( which I prioritize over EoE as the conclusion to anime Shinji's character arc ), even though I've tried over the years. Maybe it's just my weird reluctance to just outright change shit about canon, idk.

If anything, I guess my answer to all of this is my post-EoE verse where things start to rebuild and look up for the cast. It's something I like about the manga and rebuild — they're a little more unambiguously optimistic, which I think ultimately does Eva's message of self-love and self-improvement better service. Post-EoE Shinji is generally in a better place mentally and regrets his actions in EoE. He chose a world of individuality, which means he needs to take ownership of those actions and do better.

[vulpine111]

1: The current situation.

Fertility/Inguz.

Some sort of new beginning besides the fact that a new year just started. A warning that I need to invest more in myself and be wary of the foundation for the seeds I'm planting. I'm going to need to cut off any bad influences and free myself from any patterns/habits that don't serve me.

2: How you see yourself.

Warrior/Teiwaz.

I see myself as a strong person but am struggling with patience and accepting whatever the Universe wills for me. Lots of masculine energy here- perhaps a hint to cultivate positive, not toxic masculinity. I must persevere and endure my path no matter how much it hurts sometimes.

3: How you see your partner.

Movement/Ehwaz.

Something needs to change if we're going to make progress. Maybe multiple things. I can't change someone else, but I can work on improving my accordance with my morals and cultivating a better, more pleasant nature. Ultimately, I want him to be someone I can share everything with.

4: What is working with you.

Initiation/Perth.

I am letting my own expectations hurt me. I am overwhelmed/exhausted by all the tests of character on my plate. I need to work on strengthening my center and focus on how things are now instead of dwell on the past. Continue to do things actually worth loving.

5: What challenge you face.

Journey/Raido.

I need to pay more attention to personal relationships. Lots of difficulty in them right now.

Possibly this could be saying my connection with him is taking up too much bandwidth for my others and if I do enter a period of greater commitment with him, I will lose more friends.

6: What you want to see happen.

Standstill/Isa.

I want him to be more vulnerable with me and actually think of what I might need/hope for. I want to grow closer and build trust. It seems like my excessive sacrifices have gone unappreciated, though.

7: What you're afraid might happen.

Separation/Othila.

I am afraid he will die or permanently retreat in some other way. It is time for us to become more honest with each other and leave behind old ways of thinking. I need to consider everyone's best interest. Be a Light in his life and others. I need to see this situation as clearly as possible and be less negligent- otherwise further scarring is unavoidable.

8: Where your responsibility lies.

Partnership/Gebo.

I need to work on my relationship with the Divine and offer more spiritual support to others. Money isn't everything.

9: Where the other person's responsibility lies.

Protection/Algiz.

He needs to control his feelings. Maybe this is related to his addiction. New opportunities and challenges may be ahead but also some unwanted influences. He needs to grow more comfortable sitting with his own pain instead of attempt to run/escape constantly.

10: The potential outcome.

Flow/Laguz.

Cleansing. Satisfaction of emotional needs.